announcements

Built out of a need for a place to host resources for Strat-O-Matic Basketball, Somhoops started in January of 2003 where it hosted material for both the cards & dice and pc games including card corrections, roster sheets, game rules, enhanced rules and utilities.

After a major overhaul in look and design of the website, Somhoops actively sought articles from those who played basketball and posted them in the fall of 2006 to help increase the interest for the basketball game. Following in 2007, many additions were added to the site including more articles, player pictures, court images, links to Strat related sites, known leagues, league resources and NBA-ABA related sites, history of the basketball game, and links to the basketball articles and the Strat-O-Sphere and Somworld thanks to Will Kolodzie. A forum was setup through the site and an offer was extended to all the basketball leagues to host their league discussions in an attempt to gather those in leagues to one central location. In 2008, thanks to Strat Fan’s Glenn Guzzo and the Strat-O-Matic Review’s Del Newell, all the basketball material from both publications was collected and posted.

While not much was done during 2009 other than maintaining the site, this year Somhoops is recharged and is developing an online basketball publication called The Dazzler to help “assist” those who play Strat-O-Matic basketball. This publication will include articles which focus on teaching the intricacies of the game especially the mechanics of the action deck and the value player ratings. After several years of development, The Dazzler will be offering total card values for each player from the most current season and selected past seasons which include breakdowns of the 11 card categories and offensive and defense values. The card values should not only be very useful for those in draft leagues, but also those who explore their own projects since these values accurately gauge the values of players. Other topics for articles that are or will be included on The Dazzler include Stonewall’s famous rookie ratings, shot column calculations, card projections, season previews, and winning strategies

While all our material has been free of charge in the past, Somhoops has made this change to subscription for our new articles for three reasons including the significant increase in web hosting fees, an intention to offer free gifts to those who contribute to the basketball community through somhoops (such as season rosters) and finally to pursue avenues to help promote the game to those who currently do not play. While I understand this change may inconvenience many who used to enjoy our material for free, I do hope you decide to support our efforts with a subscription to The Dazzler to help continue to host material and help in our attempts to grow the basketball community.

Jason Blaze will be regularly contributing material to the Strat-O-Wire as well, so be on the lookout for hints, tips and previews of Strat-O-Matic Basketball!